In traditional television advertising, advertising opportunities are expressed in terms of airtime within a specific television program. For example, a particular advertising opportunity may be expressed to advertising buyers as a 30-second slot within a particular episode of the television program Glee, aired on Jan. 1, 2014 from 8:00 pm-9:00 pm. A buyer who purchases such an advertising opportunity purchases the placement of one or more advertisements within the airtime associated with that opportunity.
The underlying goal of advertising buyers, however, is not to provide advertisements within a particular airtime, but instead to reach an audience containing individuals who are likely to purchase the products and services advertised by such advertisements. The airtime information traditionally provided to buyers in connection with advertising opportunities, however, does not include audience information, only airtime information. As a result, buyers must resort to drawing inferences from airtime information about the audience that is likely to view a particular television program during a specified airtime. Such inferences are difficult to make with high accuracy. As a result, the traditional process of selling and purchasing television advertisement placement opportunities has been fraught with imperfect information about the audiences associated with advertising opportunities, which makes it difficult for buyers to make optimal purchasing decisions, and which can also result in advertising sellers obtaining suboptimal prices for the opportunities that they sell.
What is needed, therefore, are improved techniques for selling advertisement placement opportunities.